Latest Penguin Stories

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Warner Independent Pictures on
Friday more than doubled the number of theaters playing its
nature movie "March of the Penguins," boosting the film's
chance at becoming the No. 2 documentary of all time at
domestic box offices.

A remnant of the largest iceberg ever recorded is blocking Antarctica's McMurdo Sound, threatening tens of thousands of penguin chicks with starvation and cutting off a supply route for three science stations, a New Zealand official said Tuesday.

At 30 inches (75 centimeters), the flightless Great Auk (Pinguinus impennis) was the largest of the auks. It was hunted for food, as well as for down for mattresses, from at least the 8th century. It is classified as the only species in the genus Pinguinus. It was also known as "garefowl", from the Old Norse geirfugl, or "penguin".
Before hunted to extinction, the Great Auk could be found in great numbers on islands off eastern Canada, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Ireland and Great Britain....

The Emperor Penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) is the largest of all penguins and is the only penguin that breeds at the height of winter in Antarctica. Emperor Penguins eat mainly crustaceans (such as krill) but will also occasionally indulge in small fish and squid. In the wild, Emperor Penguins typically live for 20 years, but some records indicate a maximum lifespan of around 40 years. (The Emperor Penguin should not be confused with the King Penguin or the Royal Penguin.)
Behaviors...

A pivoted catch designed to fall into a notch on a ratchet wheel so as to allow movement in only one direction (e.g. on a windlass or in a clock mechanism), or alternatively to move the wheel in one direction.